Followers

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Under Outlaw Flags E-Book Now Available

Most writers have favorites among their work. UNDER OUTLAW FLAGS is one of mine. It's one of the few books I ever sold on the phone, just by telling the editor about the concept: the last gang of Old West outlaws gets arrested after robbing a bank, and they have to choose between going to prison or enlisting in the army to go to France and fight the Boche. Naturally, they choose to fight. But outlaws tend to have their own way of doing things . . . When the editor heard this, he said, "I'll get the paperwork started. Oh, and by the way, make sure lots of things blow up real good."

Another reason I like it is because I put myself in it as a character (you'll spot me if you read the prologue). And it was a finalist for the Spur Award given by the Western Writers of America. I think I did a pretty good job on the research, too. Mostly, though, I think that in this book I did about as good a job as I've ever done of capturing the voice I wanted to capture and hitting the notes I wanted to hit. In going over the Kindle edition, I found myself getting misty-eyed over some of the scenes . . . and I wrote the blasted thing!

UNDER OUTLAW FLAGS is now available on Amazon for the Kindle. I've often described it to people as "just your basic Western/World War I novel where lots of stuff blows up real good". If that sounds like the kind of yarn that might appeal to you, check it out.

Just finished reading the first seven chapters and can't wait to get through the rest. Ebooks are the perfect answer for this situation: I don't have the paperback, have never seen it on sale in New Zealand (where I live), and buying a copy online would have cost me more than the book in shipping charges. More than likely it wouldn't have given James just reward for what's shaping up as a very fine read either!